Rainy days

Posted on October 13, 2022 by Meagan Turner

I recently hosted a music gathering at our family cabin. My sisters and I were looking for an excuse to have a big fire and invite some people over. I joked when scheduling the date in October that we’ll see how many hearty New Englanders there are in this ukulele group. As the event drew near, the forecast was seasonably cool with a 50% chance of rain, that’s when the cancellations started and continued to the day of the event. It turns out that there are ten hearty New Englanders in that group, four musicians and six spectators. It turned out we didn’t get any rain that day and still had a big fire, marshmallow roasting and campfire singing. The event was small, intimate, and quite fun and it would have been a different event had the original group braved the rain, not better, just different.

What is it about the rain or even the forecast of it that scares people away? The rain and the ukulele got me thinking about Hawaii, serendipitously. Years ago, we spent 9 days on the island of Maui. On the day we were planning to drive to Hana, along the famous, beautiful road to Hana, it was raining. So, it’ll be rainy and wet, but we’re still in Hawaii, right? Will the waterfalls and beaches be any less beautiful, doubtful. And although we decided to skip hiking in the rain, we still wanted to see what we could along that drive and in town. We decided to go for it.

Other people who had driven to Hana talk about spending the day in traffic and along busy hiking trails and waterfalls. Our experience was quite the opposite. The leisurely drive was free from any other tourists. The BBQ place along the route was empty so we had a long talk with the owner about his life and business and the things he loves about the island. When we got to the town of Hana, there was a break in the rain, and we were able to get a walk on the beach and through the empty town. We didn’t swim that day, nor did we take any epic waterfall hiking pics, but that day is one of my favorite memories from that trip. It wasn’t a typical road trip to Hana, but it was still fun and memorable.

So, at the risk of adding more tourists to my next rainy vacation drive, I encourage you to pack a raincoat and maybe an extra layer. It might be a day worth remembering.

Posted in Fun | 2 Comments

Gems from a Recent Training Event

Posted on October 4, 2022 by Ron Munroe

I usually take training every year to learn new things and maintain certification in my field of project management. One free training event is called PMXPO, which is hosted by the Project Management Institute (PMI) in March each year. It is multi-faceted, featuring a keynote speaker, breakout session classes, an exhibit hall where attendees can talk with sponsors and vendors, and live chats to interact with fellow attendees. PMI records the sessions and makes them available on demand for almost a year to anyone who registers for PMXPO.

I did not attend the live event this year but viewed some sessions afterwards. I particularly enjoyed two of them, getting some interesting career tips in one, and some insight on how diverse organizations improve performance.

Authors Helen Tupper and Sarah Ellis discussed their book called “The Squiggly Career”. They wrote it for people like themselves whose careers have not been linear or confined to one industry. They’ve both tried multiple types of jobs and wanted to share what has helped them in their multi-directional careers. I thought their career formula could apply to anyone, and particularly appreciated two of their suggestions. The first was to figure out what matters most to you in your career, and to focus on the types of work that feed your core values. For example, Helen most values freedom, so she seeks work in which she can be self-directed and less constrained. They say that identifying your core values is not necessarily easy; it is not obvious to everyone. But knowing what is most important to you helps you to focus on the types of projects that you’d enjoy, or the roles that are most interesting to you. It is notable that so many people at Dana-Farber identify with the institute’s mission, which makes our work very satisfying and something we value.

Helen and Sarah also suggested identifying what they called your ”super-strengths”. They posit that everyone has one or two skills that they are great at. Those are the skills to try to use the most and grow. Your other skills just need to be good enough to not hinder your work. I’ve found that identifying your best strengths can also be challenging. Unless you are particularly good at self-reflection, the answers do not always come easily. Also, you may discount your best skills because they come so naturally to you and seem too easy to be valuable. It can be helpful to ask people you work with what they think you are best at. They may recognize your strengths better than you do.

The second session I liked was an interview with Laszlo Bock, who was Sr VP of People Operations at Google from 2006 to 2016. After leaving Google, he started a company called Humu, which seeks to help other companies better manage their organizations. His session was called “The Current State of Work” and he shared some thoughts about leadership. The answer to one question provided a perspective I had not heard before. He was asked if he helped other companies to see the benefits of diversity. He said that some companies, like his, believe diversity is the right thing to do. They don’t need to be convinced. But others have asked for help in understanding the benefits. So, he usually helps them by sharing a business case.

He said that when he was at Google, they researched whether greater diversity in an organization led to better performance. They spent months collecting data to study it. They found that the data said that diversity did not improve performance. They were shocked and disappointed. Why wouldn’t teams get measurable benefits from having more diversity of perspectives among their employees? The results did not seem to make sense.

So, they explored further. What they discovered was that the composition of the team, i.e., having diversity among the team members, was important, but not sufficient. The key was for all team members to feel a sense of belonging on the team, being valued as team members, and as a result feeling it was safe to share their perspectives. In other words, Laszlo said the team needs a high sense of inclusion and psychological safety. As a simplistic example, if you are the only woman on a team, you may be more hesitant to speak in some situations and thus the team will not get as much benefit from your perspective. If the team leader and other team members change their approach, they may be able to help to draw out all team members in discussions. Coaches worked with members of one team. They suggested that the more reserved team members try to speak up in the first ten minutes of a meeting to break the ice and make it easier to keep contributing for the rest of the meeting. They coached other team members to try to notice if someone in the meeting is quiet and ask that person for their thoughts. If the team can get better with these types of behaviors, they can raise participation among all team members and improve performance. Laszlo Bock said that if there is high inclusion and psychological safety, diverse teams outperform homogeneous teams by 20%. That is quite a statistic! So those were my favorite takeaways from this year’s PMXPO. I am looking forward to next year’s event.

Posted in Leadership, Learning, Team, Training | 4 Comments

In case of emergency, be prepared

Posted on September 22, 2022 by Jessica Cheng Schrepel

In the Girl Scout Handbook, the Girl Scout motto explains: “A Girl Scout is ready to help out wherever she is needed. Willingness to serve is not enough; you must know how to do the job well, even in an emergency.” 

I was a Girl Scout. Combine that with being a career Project Management Professional and I like to think I’m good on my feet and there’s little that can throw me.

That is until a couple weeks ago, when this happened:

I arrived at the scene of the accident within 5 minutes. My friend (let’s call her Jamie) was flat on the pavement, unable to move, one of her limbs twisted in a cartoonish way. Witnesses shouted at me what had happened. The ambulance had been called. Jamie was fully conscious though not making sense, obviously in shock and in pain. Within minutes, EMTs were on the scene, wrapped Jamie up as best they could, and we were off to Emergency.

Over the next few hours, first responders and her care team needed the basics:

  • Name
  • Date of birth
  • Emergency contact
  • Allergies
  • Medical conditions
  • Medications

Between the two of us (we might have led the EMTs to believe we were married so I could ride with them), we could provide most of the basics but neither of us could provide a comprehensive list of medications. And since the Emergency Department where we ended up is out-of-(her)-network, her electronic medical record didn’t have her current information. (That’ll be a rant for another time.)

Over the next days and weeks, Jamie would face several major surgeries. It had been years since she had sat with an attorney and drafted the legal documents every adult should have. In fact, we were all a few years into #adulting and named each other proxies and executors (as if we knew what any of it meant)! Jamie needed to ensure her directives were clear and up-to-date. The challenge: She was completely immobilized. Had she updated them since her move from New Hampshire? Since her divorce? Where did she put them? I went to her house in search of a folder of important papers.

The basics: There’s an app for that

If you have a smart phone, if you haven’t already, consider enabling the “in case of emergency” and “medical ID” functions. Once set, even if your phone is locked, first responders can see critical medical information such as allergies and conditions and know who to contact.

With more current smartphones, you can enable access to all your health records from multiple institutions. And with the newest phones, environmental triggers can simultaneously contact both emergency services and an emergency contact if you’re unable to do so. According to user documentation, neither Apple nor Android can read your Medical ID info; your information is yours to control and protect.

#Adulting: important legal documents all adults should have

Every adult should have the following legal documents. Depending on your situation, there are more, but these are the basics. The documents should be signed, dated, and notarized (as necessary), in a safe place and accessible by your designated agent when needed.

  • Living will/Advance directive
    • Informs doctors, medical professionals, and family which treatments you want if you’re dying, permanently unconscious, or otherwise unable to make decisions about emergency care
  • Health care power of attorney (also known as health care proxy)
    • Enables your designated agent to step in to make medical decisions if you cannot make them yourself
  • Financial power of attorney
    • Allows your designated agent access your accounts to pay bills and make financial and personal decisions if you cannot make them yourself 
  • Last will and testament
    • Designates who will receive your assets after your death. This doc also designates the person you entrust to carry out your wishes
  • Guardianship
    • Designates who should be responsible for the personal and financial of any dependents – child or adult – if you are unable to do so

If you don’t have any of these docs, look for online resources such as https://www.legalzoom.com/personal/estate-planning or search for Estate Planning in your area.

Friends: Apologies for the heavy topic. No one wants to think about emergencies and life/death situations. It certainly was not top of mind when I was thinking of blog topics to write about. I hope this serves as a gentle reminder to be prepared. Be well and be safe.

Posted in Lessons Learned, Work Life Balance | 1 Comment

Aesop’s Fables

Posted on September 14, 2022 by Spyros Potiris

Whenever I travel back to my home country of Greece, I get to reconnect with artifacts and memories of my childhood. Last month, while I was visiting my parents for a few days, I came across a book in my old room that I used to read as a kid: Aesop’s Fables. Its colorful and familiar cover caught my eye, and I couldn’t help but open it and read a few pages.

A fable is a tale that contains a short narrative that aims to illustrate a hidden message. The message may cover religious, social, and political themes and often highlights a moral truth. As such, fables have been used throughout time as ethical guides. Generally, fables use animals or objects as part of the narrative as opposed to fairytales, which revolve around human personalities. The main characters in fables are abstract by design so that the listener is more likely to receive the story without any bias against its protagonists.

Fables initially belonged to oral tradition. Many are attributed to Aesop, a slave and storyteller believed to have lived in ancient Greece around 600 BCE. How many fables are actually his is unclear, since some of the material that made it to modern times is from sources earlier than him or comes from beyond the Greek cultural sphere. But as is usually the case with folklore stories, some central person always had first the trouble of collecting them, and afterwards the fame of creating them.

Whatever their origins, many of Aesop’s fables and their moral messages have stayed with me all these years due to their simple and effective storylines. Like the fable of “The Ant and the Grasshopper” which teaches us that it is best to prepare for the days of necessity. Or the fable of “The Fox and the Grapes” which reminds us that it is easy to despise what we cannot get. And of course, the famous fable of “The Hare and the Tortoise” which advises us that working hard and staying the course can help us achieve our goals.

These fables may seem too simple and too roundabout for the modern world. Too simple because their rough draft of human nature may not correspond to the complex and subtle nuances of modern life. And too roundabout because, today, moral lessons and values are spoken out directly and not by way of allegory. Nonetheless, if you are looking for pleasing and not too strenuous content, the simplicity in the symbolism of these tales makes them the perfect read. And I would add, from personal experience, that they are especially well-suited for young readers. For those of you interested in reading some of Aesop’s numerous fables, the Library of Congress has put together an extensive collection that you can access and read for free here.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 3 Comments

Retirement Party 

Posted on August 26, 2022 by Tate Forgey

Driving into Boston the other day it dawned on me, I’m turning into a crotchety old man. Not quite at the level of my Cape in-laws, who treat going over the Sagamore bridge like planning the lunar landing, but more likely to complain about traffic than when I worked on-site. And not just grumpy, dumbfounded. “How can so many people live here?” I find myself grumbling under my breath.  

I’ll have to add this to the list of all my recent perceptual changes. If you ask me how long ago something was, I still need to do math and add up to two years to what it “seems” like. If there is more than one person in my immediate proximity, and it is not my wife who also works from home, it’s a crowd. And now, apparently, if I can’t go 70 miles an hour down the highway, I’m in a traffic jam. Chalk it up to the pandemic.  

In truth, our perception has always been a lot more malleable than we want to admit. Whether that is a consequence of familiarity or an elaborate defense mechanism to mediate a conflicting world, we all know the experience of something seeming different than it did before. We get used to certain things, we expect to see certain things, and the arc of our perception bends towards that until proven otherwise. A readjustment that can be disillusioning or delightful. 

All this to say that it was a fantastic treat to get together with my work team as the (not really) arduous trip to Boston allowed me to see many of them in person for the first time in a long time. A much deserved and long overdue retirement party for Sandie Kimball was a wonderful way to break out of the confines of the home office. Happy retirement, Sandie! We all had a great time and I left with some new experiences to color my outlook and recharge the batteries. 

I’m hoping to find more time to get together with friends and colleagues soon. It’s hard to believe there are only a couple more weeks of summer left. It always goes so fast. 

Posted in Fun, Team | 2 Comments

Christmas Launch Reveals Gifts from the Mid-Summer Night Sky

Posted on August 2, 2022 by Jennifer Robinson

[Nebra Sky Disk – Bronze artifact made by early skywatchers]

With my summer vacation coming up, I am planning some time on the coast doing a lot of nothing besides battling mosquitoes. We have a nice telescope at the cottage, but it can be a challenge to see all but the brightest stars today. I have very fond memories as a kid of a quirky red backyard telescope at my grandparents’ house on the South Coast – looking for planets, moons, and stars all thru the summer. The light pollution was not so bad as it is today, and you could still see the Milky Way and many, many stars on a good night with the naked eye. At summer camp it was stunning to see flickering of aurora over the lake.

It should come then as no surprise that the Christmas launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) fascinated me. It required an agonizing 6 months of travel and unpacking, but now the newly released photos from it are stunning. I watched it launch live. In its travels, the micrometeor strikes struck me with concern too! The official broadcast of the first released images was marked on my calendar, so I didn’t book you in a meeting for that event.


It’s glorious.

Messier JWST capture

[Messier M74 Spiral Galaxy – links to older image captures]


I think the images themselves are beautiful. I am impressed with the contributions to science even before they opened the mirror, and – yes – professionally curious about the project managers, the project selection, and project planning that goes into something that complex. It has really captured my imagination and attention.
I consider myself to be a life-long learner. Attending educational events or reading about my interests are some of my favorite things, and I really find that I internalize the learning by analyzing other people’s or projects’ experiences – successes and mistakes! It’s really satisfying, and I hope it helps me be a better project manager. So I occasionally document mini-use cases for myself. In the JWST project, I have found several areas of interest to project managers in support of the SPP project methodology to share with you. Sometimes we get questioned about the value of PM tools by SMEs. It’s “red-tape” or too much “overhead.” But I contend that our project structures, planning and methodology give us the tools to have successful projects.

A rare and spectacular head-on collision between two galaxies appears in this Hubble Space Telescope true-color image of the Cartwheel Galaxy, located 500 million light-years away in the constellation Sculptor. The new details of star birth resolved by Hubble provide an opportunity to study how extremely massive stars are born in large fragmented gas clouds.
Cartwheel Galaxy from the JWST Nircam camera

[Same Galaxy – different telescope! Above Hubble true color image in indigo and yellows; Below: JWST in pink and fuchsia]


Here are just three of my observations from the JWST project:

Importance of Project Selection – Quality of estimating project resources, incentives, or disincentives for quality of estimation. This impacts all project resources, money, time, people, or availability of technology to support the goals. Taking the novelty of the project and experience of the team/similarity to other projects/technology is also important.
On estimating proposals: Many pure science-based projects are selected because they have the greatest potential for astounding results – as we’re seeing with JWST. They are not selected as the low-cost vendor or because they can fix your hot-water heater tomorrow. Also, of note: the proposal presenters – like many vendors – are incented to low-ball the schedule and costs in order to get them accepted. While the proposals are selected by scientists and engineers, they still need congressional approval.
Novelty and experience: There has been nothing quite like the JWST before. There were at least 10 new technologies that needed to be developed before this telescope could fly. Imagine a database migration project where you have to develop a programming language and solder all new boards for the new servers by hand using waldos.
The JWST was not selected because the selection committee thought it could work, or that it was the least expensive telescope options – they selected it because they thought it would provide insight into the universe and revelations for the scientific community to study for the next generation.

JWST Cosmic Cliffs
Cosmic Cliffs


Importance of the Success Metrics – The project plan can often be weak around success metrics. The basics are “on time, within budget, in scope.” Unlike many (all, or most) corporate business KPIs for a project, NASA doesn’t consider on-time delivery or the budget figures, or even technically the scope of work in the evaluation of a successful project. Although many news articles include the delays and budget overruns in them, it must rankle a little because NASA considers this project a huge success. The telescope launched successfully, arrived a million miles away at L2, deployed the sun shield and mirrors, and is capturing amazing data and sending it back to analyze. Altho years late and billions over budget,
it met the quality and deliverables requirements. Budget and timeline only mattered to Congress. (And polls show Americans think it was money well spent after just two weeks.) The adages of making sure to have metrics that matter, “You can’t manage what you don’t measure” and, “What’s measured improves” are a bit turned upside down in this project – but it holds up if you also add, “Metrics are like a course in a meal. They should satisfy the need or want for something.”

JWST and project team at Goddard Space Lab

[JWST project team at Goddard Space Lab]


Importance of Risk Assessment – The JWST project has a reported over 700 individual single points of failure. Like if one single pin holding the cover for the shield didn’t release – the shield couldn’t deploy. Project over. Ten billion dollars. Just. Lost. In. Space.
Before launch, the engineering team brainstormed ways they could tweak design, add a back-up widget, jiggle a handle, or use things like temperature differentials to jog something loose to reduce the risks of that single mis-fired pin.
Work on an exhaustive Risk Plan can often feel like digging up trouble and wasted effort to project teams – you could plan for many things that are not likely to happen that you also feverishly hope NEVER gets used. For an earth-bound project, you could evaluate the level and costs of a realized risk to the project – but you have the benefit of being able to see, touch, or evaluate the issue when it’s realized. I do not think you have to go to the minute detail like JWST unless the constraints of the project require it.
However, these two small things were a light bulb for me, and I will endeavor to bring the risk planning to a higher level of awareness to project teams in the future, recognizing that we hope to never use it, but we’re prepared for it to happen.


For now, I’ll leave you with just those three of my eureka moments. There are so many more I am finding after reading and learning about the JWST project. Would love to hear your comments and talk with you about them.

So to summarize, this abbreviated case analysis of the JWST project re-affirms my confidence and trust that the basic “rules” of project management and our PMO methodology are a solid foundation even for the largest, strangest, most innovative projects that we do: pick the right strategic projects for your organization, understand the real success metrics for the project, and do appropriate risk planning in advance as a hedge against – not just against failure – but to combat the unknown situations which cause stress, re-work and extra time.

Earn a PDU: IIL keynote speech from Greg Robinson lead PM on the JWST project (I’m not aware of any family relationship.)
More images and information can be found here

Posted in Innovation, Planning | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Wisdom and Madness

Posted on July 26, 2022 by David Pesta

“Cleverness is not wisdom.”
                     – Euripides,  The Bacchæ 405 BC

In 2016 in this blog-space, our former PMO colleague and good friend Michael Madden wrote a piece entitled Will Humankind Be the Cause of its Own Destruction? The content was a somber exploration of topics hinted at in the title. Several of us rolled our eyes and said, “Wow Michael, that’s a bit heavy for our friendly little blog.” My take on it was more practical. I was in the queue to write the blog post right after his.

I remember silently stewing, thinking, “Geez, this is going to be a tough act to follow, I better keep it light, thanks Captain Buzzkill.” Or I might have actually even said that out loud to Michael. His cube was right next to mine back then. It’s coming back to me now; I did bark those words at him through our shared cube wall.

In hindsight, maybe Michael was onto something. Recent events in this country and around the world are beyond troubling. As if two and half years of pandemic wasn’t enough, the hits just keep on coming. Putin wages a brutal war of attrition while rather successfully banking on the short attention span of the West. Lake Mead has dried up and in England, it is 106 degrees Fahrenheit as I write this, but climate change deniers deny on. The ongoing matter of school shootings literally brings me near to tears just thinking about it. Michael has shown us something at the very least: Never doubt the dire foresight of an Irishman.

I wish I possessed the cognitive dissonance needed now to “keep it light”, maybe write about what I bought on Prime Day. Fear and loathing propel me elsewhere. I am not one of these phone-junkie doom-scrollers, though. I read the BBC for 10-20 minutes on most but not every day. Information, the quantity and frequency of it, is not the source of my worry. It’s the subsequent desire to make sense of the world. Where to find wisdom in the midst of all the madness.

Lacking any one person today who might help, I often look for insight by reading quotes from accomplished people of the past. Writers, philosophers, scientists, important leaders throughout history have seen, endured, and processed more than any of us mired in the present. Over the years, I’ve collected quotes in a few scattered Word docs as I came across them while reading. They offer a bit of clarity, sometimes even inspiration.

In this post, I thought I might share a few of these quotes with you, dear readers, in the hope one or two might resonate.

The Unknown

“Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is an absurd one.”
                     – Voltaire

“The Edge, there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.”
                     – Hunter S. Thompson

“Nature shows us only the tail of the lion. But there is no doubt in my mind that the lion belongs with it even if he cannot reveal himself to the eye all at once because of his huge dimension. We see him only the way a louse sitting upon him would.”
                     – Albert Einstein

Change

“Desperation is the raw material of drastic change.”
                     – William S. Burroughs, The Western Lands 1987

“Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
                    – James Baldwin, As Much Truth As One Can Bear 1962

The Modern World

“The great problem facing modern man is that, that the means by which we live have outdistanced the spiritual ends for which we live.”
                     – Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Life is occupied in both perpetuating itself and in surpassing itself; if all it does is maintain itself, then living is only not dying.”
                     – Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity 1949

“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”
                     – Albert Einstein

Resilience

“The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong in the broken places.”
                     – Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

“Early in life, I learned that all life is a purposeful struggle”
                     – Deacon Jones

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, “I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along”. You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”
                     – Eleanor Roosevelt

And I wouldn’t be me if I did not leave you with these parting words from the great man himself.

“Here’s to 1942, here’s to a year of toil—a year of struggle and peril, and a long step forward towards victory. May we all come through safe and with honour.”
                     – Winston Churchill, New Year’s toast, January 1, 1942

If you have a favorite quote that carries you through difficult, confusing days, please do me and our community the favor of sharing it in the comments.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Soaking Up The Summer

Posted on July 12, 2022 by Theresa Falzarano

At the beginning of every summer, I brainstorm the fun things my family and I would like to do and places we would like to visit.  Summer is my favorite season to reconnect with family and friends, so it is important to have a plan to soak up as much of it as we can.  Here are some of the things we have enjoyed so far: 

  • We kicked off this summer with a special visit from my sister-in-law and her three kids.  This included a trip to a local beach, miniature golfing, and a Boston Duck Tour!  If you have not done a duck tour, I highly recommend it.  I always learn something new about the great city of Boston! 
  • This is the first year that we took the kids strawberry picking and made some strawberry jam and strawberry & banana smoothies!  I did not use pectin for the jam but will try that in the future to speed up the jam making process.     
  • We swam at a local pond just eight minutes away from our home.  The three times that we went so far entailed hours of swimming together and making up all sorts of fun games in the water!
  • We also had many hours of fun in the backyard blow up pool.  I finally figured out how to blow up the pool so that the water does not empty out right after filling it! 
  • Our July 4th family reunion in Maine was lots of fun!  This included a total of 14 cousins and a special visit from my Uncle Vito and Aunt Rosaria.  Aunt Rosie taught us two recipes which she calls “easy food”, sugar donuts and patties using the squash flowers from the garden, yummy!! 
  • Of course, it would not be summer without a few gallons of ice cream!  Some of our favorites are mint chocolate chip, strawberry, and monster mash which we recently discovered.  
  • We had a nice beach day down in Scituate with my good friend from college and our families.  A trip to the south shore always feels like you’re going on vacation for this north shore girl!     
  • Blueberry picking at Russel Orchards in Ipswich.  Lesson learned – make sure to go early in the morning or risk not having any berries to pick.  We ended up buying some from the farmer stand but we may try picking again in a couple of weeks. 

We are so grateful to have been able to enjoy so much of the summer so far and look forward to some additional summer fun as follows:

  • Camping in the backyard.  This includes homemade pizza, firepit popcorn and lots of fun!  This year we plan to watch a movie outside as well which will be an extra special treat.
  • Possibly a long weekend in Acadia, Maine.  In the past we have visited either the Cape or Old Orchard Beach, but we would like to try something different this year. 
  • Maybe a surprise visit from my Canadian cousin Nadia and her two girls one of whom I have never met in person.  It will be so nice to give her daughters a big squeeze if I get a chance to see them!

I hope that you are having a great summer and getting a chance to soak up some fun!!

Soaking Up Summer Image
Posted in Fun, Lessons Learned, Planning, Work Life Balance | 4 Comments

Beach Must Haves

Posted on July 5, 2022 by Agnes Chojnowska

Recently I’ve become more and more reliant on lists both at work and at home. I have my To Do list, my grocery list, my travel list, etc. I feel like I’m rushing everywhere, and the lists help to keep me on track and less stressed. I use apps on my phone to set reminders and use Microsoft OneNote to keep track of my meeting notes and follows ups.

A couple weeks ago I went to the beach with my friends, I was rushing and ended up forgetting a few things. My first thought was that I should have made a list 😊. Below is what I would have put on my Beach list, what would be on yours?

Beach Must Have List

  • Suntan lotion: SPF70+ so that I don’t turn into a lobster
  • Wide brimmed hat: Again, the sun is not my friend
  • Beach blanket: Last year I got a sand resistant blanket, it’s amazing!
  • Water bottle: Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate…
  • A good book: I’m just started reading Project Hail Mary
  • Games: Volleyball or frisbee are always fun
  • Snacks: Watermelon is my favorite
  • Ice packs: To keep everything cool
  • Beach Chair/Umbrella
  • Towels
Posted in Documentation, Fun, Planning | 3 Comments

Think About How You Think

Posted on June 20, 2022 by Deb Cote

I dread calling Comcast customer service. It never, ever goes well. It starts bad and gets progressively worse.

I’m not alone. Everyone I’ve ever spoken to has similar Xfinity battle scars. “Xfinity” because Comcast’s customer service reputation was so bad, they rebranded themselves.

New name. New logo. Same crappy customer service.

It goes something like this. Your blood pressure is already elevated after pressing 97 buttons, hearing fake typing, and screaming “representative” into the phone just as many times, your voice rising with each instance.

Unless you are calling about your account balance or want to make a payment, whatever reason you are calling is going to have about a 2% chance of getting resolved. Why? Because they aren’t trained in critical thinking. They are trained to follow a set of FAQs and if/then statements that you can envision them reading as they all consistently say:

“Hello Ms. Deb. How are you today? How is your day going so far?”

“My basement flooded, my Saturday flight was cancelled, and I have flu-like symptoms.”

“Oh, that’s good to hear! How can I help you?”

And the conversation goes on, usually with me hanging up with no resolution and complaining to my husband how I’ll never get those 45+ minutes back in my life.

With critical thinking, we listen, analyze, and consider options, decisions, and next steps. We don’t rely on what someone else said or the way something has always been done. We question. We brainstorm. We think out of the box. We interrogate reality. We use suppositional reasoning then apply logic. We flex and adapt.

My mother is 79. When my dad passed away 10 years ago, I needed to stay better connected to her, since my dad was who I usually called to chat, ask advice, or make plans with. My mother had a smart phone, Samsung I think, which was past warranty but still neatly stored brand new in its box. My husband brought her to the Apple store and got her a new iPhone. She was skeptical at first, but she wrote everything down that we showed her and she was soon emailing, texting, and now uses the Contacts app as an emergency backup to her laminated phone list. She loves her phone. But if something veers from the list of things she knows how to do, she sends me an email from her computer.

“When you’re not busy, my phone isn’t working.”

Of course it is; she just doesn’t think critically. She doesn’t troubleshoot. I try to explain so she can apply logic. At Christmas, I got a text from her with a Bitmoji of her in a Santa suit, NOT the outfit I had set her up with that summer. She realized it was Christmas, reasoned her avatar shouldn’t be wearing capris and a T-shirt, and figured out how to re-dress her online self with warmer and more holiday-appropriate attire. We’re getting there.

If my mother can do it, we can too! How can we think more critically? How do we solve new problems? How do we solve old problems in new ways? How do we rely less on the internet? Google is great, but we may be following someone else’s path without considering our own circumstances, challenges, and opportunities. Let’s start to think more about how we think.

Posted in Innovation, Learning, Motivation, Soft Skills | Tagged , , | 2 Comments